The invention relates to an ultrasound applicator for diagnosis; more specifically it relates to a manually operated applicator suitable for examining internal organs and tissues of the human body, which applicator incorporates an ultrasound transducer composed of a plurality of converter elements built into an elongated, rigid housing having a scanning surface designed for placement onto the body area or organ to be examined. The housing, furthermore, is equipped with an elongated handle being connected to the ultrasound transducer by means of a joint member.
Ultrasound applicators of this kind conventionally are designed for scanning internal organs of the human body through the skin, however it would be desirable to provide a ultrasound applicator designed for use during open surgery especially for diagnosis of tissues or organs directly accessible from the outside just during such treatment.
The published German Patent Application No. 2,950,203, discloses an endoscope constituting an eye piece, a flexible tube, including a bendable connecting portion and a cylinder-shaped front portion. A light conductor and control cables are arranged within the flexible tube and the front portion bears a built-in ultrasound transducer. The known endoscope is not very well adapted for use during open surgery because it cannot be sufficiently sterilized due to its sensitive optical system. In addition, the design of the bendable connecting portion renders the known endoscope applicable only for examination procedures requiring just relatively small bending angles. It is also desirable to keep the surgical area i.e. the field of the human body affected by an operation as small as possible and it is difficult to apply the cylinder-shaped endoscope in a manner which places the ultrasound transducer--seen from the perspective of the surgical area--beneath the object of examination. Therefore, possible applications of the known apparatus are rather limited.
European Patent Application No. 0,039,045 discloses another endoscope comprising a remotely controlled bendable front portion and two ultrasound transducers arranged therein. Similar to the mentioned endoscope, again the front portion of this endoscope has a relatively small bending angle which most likely amounts to not more than a few degrees. The manipulation mechanism providing remote control and installed in the endoscope's interior is rather bulky, therefore the endoscope can only be applied to surgical areas of sufficient dimensions.
A medical ultrasound testing probe is disclosed in the specification of German Utility Model No. 6,942,159, incorporating a flexible tube, a handle connected to one end of the flexible tube and an ultrasound converter arranged at the other end. It is not possible to bend the ultrasound converter with respect to the adjacent end of the tube, which limits the use of the testing probe for examinations of internal organs during surgical operation.